Introduction to RoboControl

RoboControl is an open-source framework designed to simplify interaction with industrial and educational robotic hardware through a unified, high-level API. Build advanced robotics applications in minutes, not months.

Who Uses RoboControl?

VEX V5 Robotics Teams (High School & College)

The Challenge: Competition teams have weeks to develop complex autonomous routines while balancing mechanical design, programming, and strategy. Teams spend weeks tuning PID controllers, struggling with odometry drift, and manually path planning.

RoboControl's Solution: Drag-and-drop path planning, automatic code generation, and pre-tuned controllers let teams focus on game strategy instead of motion control implementation. Visual mission design in minutes instead of days. The VexMatch tools integrate with your existing PROS workflows.

Drone & UAV Operators

The Challenge: Managing autonomous drone fleets for surveying, mapping, or delivery requires coordinating multiple vehicles, optimizing flight plans, ensuring safety compliance, and handling real-time telemetry from airborne systems.

RoboControl's Solution: Central fleet management dashboard monitors all vehicles in real-time. Auto-generates survey grids optimized for your camera settings. Handles airspace deconfliction automatically so drones don't collide. Geo-fencing and fail-safe management ensure regulatory compliance for Part 107 operations.

Research & Development Engineers

The Challenge: Custom robotics development requires implementing controllers, sensor fusion, and algorithms from scratch—often duplicating work across projects. Integration with different hardware platforms takes weeks.

RoboControl's Solution: Production-ready implementations of EKF, MPC, LQR, and collision avoidance algorithms. Sensor fusion pipelines handle encoder + IMU + GPS data. Write once, deploy across multiple robot platforms. Open-source so you can modify and contribute improvements.

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Universal Driver

Write code once and deploy across VEX, KUKA, ABB, UR, and Fanuc robots without changing your core logic.

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Comprehensive API

Use C# to define complex motion paths, I/O triggers, and sensor integrations with well-designed interfaces.

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Real-time Telemetry

Monitor joint positions, torque, and power consumption with sub-millisecond latency and live visualization.

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Simulation Mode

Test your code in a physics-accurate virtual environment before deploying to physical hardware.

Quick Start

To get started with RoboControl, you'll need .NET 8.0+ installed on your machine. Clone the repository and build from source.

Copy

# Clone repository
git clone https://github.com/smiles0527/RoboControl.git
cd RoboControl

# Build solution
dotnet build --configuration Release

# Run tests
dotnet test

# Launch application
dotnet run --project ControlWorkbench.App

⚠ Safety Warning

Always ensure the emergency stop button is within reach when testing on physical hardware. Simulation mode is recommended for initial testing.

Platform Capabilities

VEX V5 Robotics

Competition robotics with advanced capabilities:

Tracking wheel odometry (2-wheel and 3-wheel configurations)
Pure Pursuit path following with dynamic lookahead control
PROS C++ code generation for autonomous programs
Physics-based robot simulator for validation
PID tuner for real-time controller optimization

Drone and UAV Systems

Enterprise drone operations and mission planning:

Fleet management for 2-100+ vehicles
Mission planning with waypoint optimization
Multirotor physics simulator
Visual-inertial SLAM integration
Geofencing and autonomous safety systems

Architecture Overview

RoboControl is organized into modular, layered projects:

ControlWorkbench.App        # WPF Desktop Application
├── ControlWorkbench.Core      # Core abstractions, units, collections
├── ControlWorkbench.Math      # Control theory (PID, MPC, LQR, EKF)
├── ControlWorkbench.VEX       # VEX V5 robotics integration
├── ControlWorkbench.Drone     # Drone/UAV platform
├── ControlWorkbench.Protocol  # Binary telemetry protocol
├── ControlWorkbench.Transport # Serial/UDP communication
└── ControlWorkbench.Tests     # Unit tests

Next Steps

Ready to dive in? Choose your path:

Install RoboControl VEX V5 Features Drone Features API Reference